Last 3 months headlines – Page 1149
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New model pioneers win ABS status
Two of the highest-profile flagbearers for new models of legal service ownership have won approval as alternative business structures. Knights Solicitors, owned by James Caan’s private equity vehicle Hamilton Bradshaw, and stock exchange-listed personal injury company Quindell Portfolio were both confirmed as ABSs by the Solicitors ...
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Trainee retention figures hold up
Leading firms in England and Wales retained 79% of their trainees once they had qualified in 2012, new figures reveal. The Chambers Student guide surveyed 123 mostly commercial firms and found that 2,074 out of 2,620 trainees remained at their first firm. ...
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Hunting in the dock
The latest friends of the prime minister to have found themselves in the criminal dock are members of the Heythrop Hunt. This is Cameron’s local hunt in Oxfordshire, with which he rode half a dozen times before the Hunting Act in February 2005 made hunting with dogs unlawful. ...
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SRA admits disappointment at COLP and COFA figures
Several hundred firms face having their authorisation revoked for failing to appoint acceptable compliance officers, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said today. In its first formal statement of disappointment at the profession’s response to the requirement to appoint compliance officers for legal practice and for finance ...
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Global approach to family law
The reform of family law is a constant source of debate in the UK, and in France it is very much the same situation. For example, a French parliamentary vote expected in January on proposals to open up the institution of marriage to gay couples mirrors the current debate in ...
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High threshold for offensive social media prosecutions
Crown Prosecution Service guidelines proposed today for the prosecution of cases involving communications sent via social media sites such as Twitter will give more latitude to offensive and satirical comment, the director of public prosecutions Keir Starmer QC said. The guidelines require prosecutors to distinguish ...
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Create constitutional rights, not a new bill – Law Society
The Law Society has added its voice to those opposing the creation of a UK bill of rights. Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, the Society’s president proposed instead that 'constitutional rights' be added to existing laws. In a statement published after the government’s Commission on a Bill of Rights ...
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Yielding the greatest return?
I had a meeting with a potential client last week and, rightly so, the partners asked me to quantify the expected return on investment to them on costs of a particular marketing activity.
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Commission: ‘strong argument in favour of a UK bill of rights’
The commission that has spent 21 months and £700,000 investigating the creation of a UK bill of rights has come out in favour of a bill that would ‘incorporate and build on all of the UK’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)’. However, ...
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Consolidation in the legal sector
Recent times have given us two interesting announcements in relation to current merger trends. First, Norton Rose said that it will merge with the US firm, Fulbright & Jaworski. This is set to make the merged firm join the top 10 law firms globally, both by revenue and number of ...
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Horse-riding lessons for lawyers
In the last few weeks, two things have happened simultaneously. First, the government has said that it wishes to continue with the statutory underpinning of rather close supervision of the legal profession. Second, the government has said that it does not wish to begin the statutory underpinning of close – ...
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Linklaters links up with Saudi law firm
Magic circle firm Linklaters has formed a relationship with one of Saudi Arabia’s largest law firms, it has emerged. Under the alliance with Abdulaziz AlGasim, which has over 30 lawyers, the firms will work closely to support their clients on Saudi Arabian and international transactions. ...
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Expectations low for Cameron’s bill of rights commission
The body set up to investigate replacing the Human Rights Act (HRA) with a British bill of rights is expected to publish a ‘disappointing and vague’ report tomorrow. The commission on a bill of rights, which is now made up of four Conservative nominees and four ...
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Show us more red tape, SRA asks firms
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has identified nine unnecessary regulations affecting law firms – and has appealed to solicitors to identify more for simplification or abolition. Announcing the next phase of the authority’s Red Tape Initiative, Charles Plant, the SRA’s chair, last week appealed to the profession ...
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Bill of rights commission splits
The prime minister’s plans for a ‘British bill of rights’ are in tatters today as the commission he formed to tackle the issue publishes its final report with two commission members dissenting from its contents. Lady Kennedy (Helena Kennedy QC) and Philippe Sands QC have written a dissenting argument. Speaking ...
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PC renewals ‘relatively trouble free’ but 4,500 short
The deadline for solicitors to renew their practising certificates has passed with an estimated 4,500 applications still outstanding, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said today.
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Power of attorney applications lead MoJ’s digital dash
Applications for lasting power of attorney will be available on the web from next April as one of a batch of digital services, the Ministry of Justice revealed today. The service is one of four picked by the department to meet central government’s call for ‘digital by default’ public services ...
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A view from the litigant in person
A few weeks ago, I got chatting to a woman in my local pub – let’s call her Susan – who is embroiled in a legal battle in the family courts. Having spent more than £50,000 in legal fees, she is now acting as a litigant in person, and her ...
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In-house salaries continue to trail inflation
In-house lawyers’ salaries have fallen in value over the past two years with average pay increases running below inflation, new figures show today. Salaries rose by 2.7% in the year to September 2012, according to research by Incomes Data Services (IDS). Over the same period, inflation averaged 3.7%. In the ...